"the time has come" Ichigo pondered sitting upon a sandy/tan boulder in Urahara's basement, around a hundred metres from the artificial portal that would lead to soul society "Ichigo san!" the orange haired teen sighed at the immature voice of Urahara "yes?" he shouted back turning just enough to see the blonde out of the corner of his eye "your friends are outside!" he grunted and stood up, leaning predominantly on his left leg "be there in a minute" thrusting reiatsu into his feet he pushed off his favoured leg and disappeared from the spot, leaving a imprint of his waraji as evidence of his leisure.
Outside of shop
"Chad, Inoue, Ishida" he cast an inspective gaze at the blue haired Quincy who pushed up his glasses at the gaze "do you need something, Kurosaki" Ichigo ground his teeth quietly "arrogant prick" he thought, but showed no outside irritation "n-no, just making sure your ok" he inwardly snorted and turned to avoid looking at the traitor "Urahara" he muttered as the blonde man poked his head out of the shop door "ah, Kurosaki san, Inoue san, Ishida san, Sado san, your all here" Ichigo led the group inside and into the back of the shop where they took a seat on the small cushions at the small coffee table "so Urahara, I assume there's one other that will be coming along for this small journey" the shopkeeper raised a delicate eyebrow "oh, how did you know" a black shadow, small, but still worth of caution appeared behind him "uh, Urahara san behind you" pointed out Inoue meekly as Urahara turned "oh?" as he turned he gained a large grin "Yoruichi san!" he there his arms forward to hug the now identified black feline "oh come here you cute ball of fluff" the man cooed making his way to the cat that tensed and hunkered down in its back legs, readying itself for a jump.
SCRATCH!
the feline leapt into the air and raked the claws of its left paw across the shopkeepers face.
"AGH!" Urahara stumbled backwards clutching at his injured face "Yoruichi chan, why would you do that!?" Urahara whined shaking his head, magically shaking off the injuries as well "Kisuke, just get on with it" the cat grunted as everybody but Ichigo and Urahara gave the cat an astonished look "the cat just talked!" Ishida muttered as Ichigo grunted "noo, it speaks french, Japanese, is the world champion swimmer and is secretly a woman" Ichigo tilted his head whilst rolling his eyes, locking them with the wide ones of the cat to which he gave a discreet nod "no need to get snappy Kurosaki" muttered Ishida as Urahara clapped his hands to get their attention "this is Yoruichi, it will be your guide in soul society".
they all nodded.
"so when do we leave" Ichigo questioned with a tilt of his head and a slight twitch to his lip "in a few minutes" Urahara replied as he turned and waved his hand "come on!" Ichigo just smirked and stood up, rocking on the balls of his feet for a couple of seconds before he disappeared in a flash step.
They gathered at the foot of the portal that swirled with a chaotic purple energy "this is the portal?" Ishida asked looking up at the monumental structure, it was intimidating to say the least.
His fears were vanished by the Kurosaki's comment "do you see any other inter dimensional portals around here Uryuu?" Ishida just sighed and shook his head "let's just go" Urahara raised an eyebrow "don't even want to know what it does?" the scientist asked as Ishida shook his head "the less I know the better" Urahara sighed but nodded and stepped back to charge his reiatsu into the conduit, namely, the portal.
A minute later the gate appeared to flash "I can only keep the gate open for a maximum of 10 seconds, so go!" Urahara yelled as everyone flinched and rushed into the portal.
within the Dangai
they sprinted through the precipice world as fast as they could, determined to get to the other side "guys, we should hurry it up" Ichigo muttered, oh how this moment stuck with him "why?" Yoruichi questioned pawing the ground at his side "well, other than that purple thing coming toward us, no other reason" Yoruichi looked behind and cursed loudly "everybody run, if the cleaner gets you your dead!" they started into a sprint, staying just ahead of the yellow orb that headed the train like being "the end, it's over there!" Orihime pointed at the 'light at the end of the tunnel' so to speak "run towards the light!" Yoruichi yelled as they leapt at the blinding white light, sighing happily as the danger ceased "oh fuck this!" Ichigo mentally grunted seeing the ground below him below 10 meters away, forming a reiatsu pad beneath him to slowly lower himself to the ground whilst everyone else collapsed to the ground in a heap, Yoruichi lounging relaxed on their groaning forms "so I see you can utilize reiatsu pads Ichigo" Yoruichi drawled as he touched the floor, the dispersion of the pad generating a small cloud of dust "yeah, learnt it when I was training" Yoruichi raised an eyebrow "with who?" the teen smirked, a knowing glint in his eye "I'll let you figure that one out" he tapped his foot and disappeared, reappearing on the adjacent roof "hurry up!" he called as the group stood, Yoruichi leaping onto the building and curling around his neck, head settled on his shoulder as she nodded and pointed them in the direction of a certain street to which they obeyed and, after 10 minutes of light jogging reached a small shack that looked as if it had seen better days "Hello, elder, are you there?" Yoruichi called out as a grunt came from inside the shack "why hello, it's been a while, Yoruichi san" an old man waddled out, his hunched form shaking alongside his chuckles "right, anyway, can you tell us the location of Kukakku Shiba?" the cat woman asked, golden eyes glinting mischievously while the elder stroked his short beard and turned his eyes to the sky to help himself think better "my best guess would be that they are over" he waved his right arm around and eventually settled it "that way" the group sweat dropped, Yoruichi shook it off first "thank you elder" she gave a short bow before she turned and addressed the group of teens "ok so the person were looking for is to the south of our position, here name is Kukakku Shiba, of the Shiba household, do not piss her off, she is an explosives expert and will hurt you if you annoy her" they shivered and nodded resolutely, then continued on in silence
After travelling through the various streets and back alleys of rukoganai they happened upon a large compound, it's entrance shown by 2 giant forearms gripping a banner "were here" Yoruichi deadpanned as they were forcibly prevented from entering the compound by 2 what appeared to be 'gate guards' "stop, what business do you have in the Shiba household?" questioned the guard on the left "we are here to see Kukakku chan" the cat raised it head gaining a look of recognition from them both "Yoruichi sama!" they bowed briefly and parted "please go in, Kukakku sama is in the living room" Yoruichi nodded and hopped off of the shoulder to step into the compound "come on, let's go" she continued on into the household.
They were seated at the table in Kukakku's house, said woman looked strangely unamused "so you want to invade soul society eh?" she leaned back and let a chuckle slip from between her lips after hearing the enticing explanation from the black cat that was curled up comfortably in Ichigo's lap "well I don't see any reason not to allow you to use my cannon" the bandaged woman gained a smirk "but you have to teach your little brats how to form the cannonball, no way am I going that far" suddenly the earth began to tremble and the sound of several dozen hooves resounded through the area until a cloud of dust blew through the now torn open rice paper doors filling the room with dirt.
"phew, made it!" cried a gravelly voice that caused Ichigo to twitch in annoyance "Ganju Shiba" he thought irritably as the muscled black haired man stumbled in coughing up dust from the skidding arrival of his large hog "hey sis!" he stepped up next to her "what is a shinigami doing here?" he questioned quietly as Kukakku glanced at him sharply "don't piss me off Ganju, not now" Ganju glared back at the orange haired shinigami who gave him a deadpan look "I'd rather you not look at me like that" Ichigo tilted his head and let his reiatsu bubble slightly causing Ganju to sweat almost invisibly "r-right" he stuttered as Ichigo smirked "glad we have an accord" he muttered letting his energy settle whilst Ganju disappeared up the nearest staircase to escape the teen who seemed to regard him as an ant that could be stepped on should he fall out of line "so, Kukakku san, what is this cannon you're talking about?" Ichigo asked as Kukakku chuckled "well kid, you don't honestly believe that you're going to push through the front door do you?" she chuckled lowly at that one "no, that stack that's tacked onto the side of the house, well, that's the cannons 'barrel' if you will, and you're the cannonball" Ichigo nodded, apparently not fazed "so, is there anywhere I could stay for tonight?" he probed politely as Kukakku grinned and nodded "of course, just go up the flight of stairs down that hall and pick a room, we weren't known as the noble Shiba household for nothing" Ichigo nodded his thanks and stood up to leave "the same goes for the rest of you, just pick a room, breakfast is at 9AM by the way" Kukakku stood and took her own leave whilst saying a swift "goodnight".
After leaving the room and making his way down the hall with his friends Ichigo ascended the stairs then turned right, being one of the only ones to do so he smiled lightly and looked back "g'night" he called back as they responded in kind, disappearing around the next corner "ah" he sighed, happy to finally lay down as he opened the door tapping it with his palm as he made a beeline toward the bed and laid flat on his back, arms laid across his stomach with his legs spread slightly "are you ok Ichigo?" Yoruichi asked, tone conveying worry as the teen felt a weight settle on his stomach "I'm fine, just a bit stressed" he flinched slightly as he felt a tongue lick his cheek "what was that" he asked calmly as Yoruichi chuckled "relax , were going to invade a fortress tomorrow, gather your strength while you can; that reminds me" Ichigo lazily opened one eye to stare into the golden of Yoruichi's "hm" the cats eyes narrowed dangerously.
"how do you know of my regular form, because I sure as hell know that Kisuke didn't tell you"
DUN DUN DUUUN! well, this chapter was a bitch to write, but hey I got it out. This story is probably the longest one I've had inspiration for, most likely because my friend is a HUGE bleach fan and I enjoy his complaining on him trying to find out what the harem and plot is hehe. Also, just wanted to say THANKS, jesus never thought this story would get that big, I mean it gets maybe 2K views a week which isn't bad considering. Anyway, like before, I don't know when the next chapter will be out, maybe in a few weeks so until then.
See ya!